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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011.05.10 Forest Lands Commission Minutes Minutes FOR A MEETING OF THE ASHLAND FOREST LANDS COMMISSION Tuesday, May loth, 2011 5:30PM to 7:30PM Siskiyou Room, Community Development Building 51 Winburn Way I. CALL TO ORDER: 5:47 PM II. INTRODUCTIONS Present: John Williams, Gary Pool, Jeff McFarland, Albert Pepe, John Karns, Stefanie Seffinger, Chris Chambers, Carrie Zoll (Myco Rise-Up), Marty Main III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Pool motioned and Seffinger seconded approval of the minutes from May meeting as submitted, all ayes in support of the motion. IV. PUBLIC FORUM Carrie Zoll presented a proposal to the Parks Commission for alternatives to pesticides. Carrie wanted to introduce mycoremediation and permaculture as tools to forest restoration, building soils, and introducing fungi. Williams asked about Parks Department herbicides and if they are being used. Carrie didn't know what they're using currently. She said that schools will need to quit using herbicides next year. Seffinger said that Parks is reducing their use and looking for volunteers to help. Carrie is willing to help recruit people to help implement herbicide free Parks. Seffinger said that there are a number of parks that are herbicide free already. V. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Pool brought up the passing of Gorse (Commissioner Craig Gorson) since the last meeting. Several people spoke about their appreciation for all that he gave to the Forest Lands Commission and the community. Williams introduced Albert Pepe as the newest Forest Lands Commissioner. Albert spoke about being a resident and student in Ashland for the last 23 years and appreciates the environment around Ashland. He has connections to Lomakatsi and has worked in the forests before and now is a gardener and landscaper. VI. BUSINESS A. Earth Day Recap and Watershed Map Distribution Williams talked about the booth at Earth Day. The event was good this year and the Forest Lands booth gave away the Pokey McFarland created watershed map, and displayed the map in poster form. Williams explained the G:\fireTorest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011Uvtay loth 2011 action.docx map's purpose for educational purposes. Karns said he forwarded the map to the City Administrator and the City Council. Williams asked about how the commission wants to distribute the map to the community. Ideas were to give some to North Mountain Park, the schools, Chamber of Commerce, the library. Pool suggested making the poster size available. Williams suggested getting the image on a shirt or sweatshirt. Karns asked how much printing the poster would cost, Williams suggested using a web based print company to print and market the watershed map. He saw a poster size of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument map and maybe something similar could be done. Main suggested that the commission consider giving a map print to past Forest Lands commission chairs including Bill Robertson, Tony Kerwin, Juniper Brock, Frank Betlejewski, and maybe others. Chief Woodley was suggested as another. Main said that a lot of people have given a lot and we've not done a great job of appreciating them. Williams will talk with Pokey about poster printing. Seffinger suggested creating greeting cards to be used as thank you cards with the map on the card. B. Trails/Recreation Policy Development Karns covered the overview of approaching the issue of trails planning. He read several City policies including the Parks Dept trails master plan that can be used to a large degree to craft a plan and policy for City trails. Karns passed out pictures of trails constructed illegally on Forest Service land in the watershed using an excavator. Karns had experience in California with trail riding and the need to protect resources as part of recreation. Education has to be an important component of any plan. Karns submitted a draft outline to the commission for a process to create a policy for trails use and maintenance. Pool asked if there are pictures available of trails that we can catalog their current condition and in the future as we move ahead. McFarland pointed out that the Parks master plan puts the health of the environment first, as Main had encouraged last meeting. McFarland suggested an environmental review process similar to what Parks has done on some of their trails and including the local property owners as well. Seffinger asked what Pool meant by a video, and Pool explained his idea of a bike with a camera to document the trails condition. Williams suggested using as much as we can of the existing documents to form the new plan using Chief Karns's outline. Williams asked who would be interested in being on a sub-committee to work on this plan. Pool offered, Pepe, Karns, McFarland, Zoll offered to help as well. Williams asked if maybe APD would need to be involved and possibly the Forest Service or Sheriff's department as suggested by Lemhouse. Chambers has contacts with Forest Service law enforcement a local watershed patrol with the Sheriff's department. C. AFR Project Update including Community Engagement Main explained the process that has taken place to date including tree thinning as part of the AFR project. Block 1, which is close to town on Granite Street, has the most work completed and Zoll asked if there are opportunities to use some of the chips and McFarland and Main said there will be opportunities to G:\fire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011\May loth 2011 action.docx chip some of the material on roadsides for use in the parks. Rob Cain spoke about the use of the BTI trail by over 500 bikes per week in the winter, less in the summer. BTO is also being used, but AWTA doesn't want to maintain it because it isn't legal. He wanted to bring this to the attention of the group. Cain mentioned the Forest Service process and the need to clarify which process addresses which area. Karns explained that the effort through the Forest Lands Commission is only for City lands and not Parks. Cain suggested more signage to help people navigate trails, possible combined with AFR signs. Pepe asked if there could be more coordination in planning efforts to reduce confusion. McFarland offered that signage is challenging and that different property owners, especially private owners don't want signs that point users to their property. Parks has held off signs in some areas, waiting on approval from entities, including the City and Forest Service. Cain stressed there are increasing users and plans are taking 3-4 years to put together. Main spoke about the challenges of managing resources across boundaries for processes that don't know boundaries. Efforts to address these types of issues tend to take a lot of time to plan. D. Update on City lands controlled burn planning Chambers gave a quick update on City prescribed burn efforts to hire a consultant and then a company to implement the burn. At this point he said they're still looking at the area around the BTI trail for the burn, but there are multiple units that are possible. E. Ashland Water Advisory Committee Update Williams talked about the water advisory committee. He said they have come down to getting tied into the Medford water supply via the Talent pipeline and then a proposal to acquire more water rights from TID and helping to build another water treatment plant. The proposals are about the same in cost. The committee is waiting for more information on pricing of the options in order to forward their final recommendation to the Council. Pepe asked about conservation. Williams said they will be making a recommendation to conserve more, but conservation is also costly due to the ongoing maintenance of the system. A redundant system is one of the overarching goals in a timely fashion. Williams favors a decision that favors local control of our water and invests in local capacity. The City Council will vote on the plan and the money to be spent on it. F. Commission 3-Year Goals progress Chambers said that last time the commission addressed three year goals. Tony Kerwin had taken on condensing the goals and grouping similar goals and that effort was lost when he left. G:Afire\Forest Interface Division\Forest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011\May loth 2011 action.docx VII. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Lemhouse gave an update on the effort to treat the City's effluent going into Bear Creek. The current proposal put forth is to create a canal that has natural vegetation to cool the water before it enters Bear Creek. DEQ has authorized the City to go forward with the plan if the Council approves. The cost will be small compared to other options the City has looked at. The City budget will be approved in the next couple weeks. The Council will look at what to do on the Impetrice Property including options from the Nature Conservancy and Standing Stone Brewing. Williams asked Karns about the vote on Fire Station Two coming up. Karns explained the proposed project to build a smaller and less costly station that will take advantage of the low construction costs in the market. Lemhouse said that Council approved a wall to be constructed along the area where the Oak Knoll fire burned. Lemhouse will support a code change to allow people to rebuild after Pepe motioned to adjourn, Williams seconded. All ayes. 7:3 0pm. VIII. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING A. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting: June 14th, 2011 IX. ADJOURN: 7:30 PM In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, ifyou need special assistance to participate in this meeting,please contact the Public Works Office at 488-5587(TTYphone number 1 800 735 2900). Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting(28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I). G:\fire\Forest Interface DivisionTorest Lands Commission\MINUTES\2011 May loth 2011 action.docx